Armour Modifications

If your GM allows it, you can pay a little extra (or a little less) for slightly different kinds of body armour.

Almost all of the options on the table, below, translate to using better or poorer materials (e.g., titanium instead of steel, household plastic instead of sophisticated polymers). In real terms, these kinds of armour are either custom made or home made, or they’re of higher or lower quality. Remember that you can supply whatever flavour text you want, so your armour could be recycled hockey gear, or you might have scrounged together enough titanium to beat out a chest plate in your basement. That kind of thing is entirely up to you.

You can combine any and all modifications to body armour, but you cannot layer the same kind of modification. For example, you cannot take Hardened twice in order to get a +2 Armour Bonus. Also, Armour Modification bonuses do not stack with mastercraft bonuses or enhancement bonuses.

Armour

Def

Non-Prof.

Max Dex

ECP

Speed

Weight

PDC

Mastercraft

–

–

+1*

1

–

–

2

Heavy

–

–

-2*

-1

-10 ft.

50.00%

-2

Light

–

–

+2*

1

+10 ft.

-50.00%

2

Ultra-Light

–

–

+3*

2

+10 ft.

-75.00%

3

Flexible

–

–

+1*

1

+10 ft.

–

1

Hardened

1

–

–

–

–

–

1

Softened

-1

–

–

–

–

–

-1

Conductive

–

–

–

–

–

–

-1

Ferrous

–

–

–

–

–

–

-1

Fragile

–

–

–

–

–

–

-2

Low Melting Point

–

–

–

–

–

–

-1

Insert, Light

1

1

+8*

-1

–

3 lb.

12

Insert, Medium

2

1

+6*

-2

–

5 lb.

13

Insert, Heavy

3

1

+6*

-3

–

7 lb.

14

* This number modifies the Maximum Dexterity of a pre-existing piece of body armour.

Mastercraft: This armour is simply of higher quality in general. Mastercraft bonuses represent a combination of improvements that incorporates lowered weight, flexibility, and hardening. Therefore, Mastercraft bonuses do not stack with other modification bonuses. You can buy Mastercraft easily. It’s just a better quality of armour. To buy higher grades of Mastercraft (i.e., Improved, Awesome, and Supreme) requires that you make it yourself or get someone to make it in the game world. That level of quality requires a face-to-face meeting.

Heavy/Light: This kind of body armour is made of materials of different weights but similar hardness, which adjusts the armour’s Maximum Dexterity, Armour Penalty, and Speed Modifier accordingly. It could be super-light ceramic or super-dense metal, for example.

Flexible: This kind of body armour is made of materials that can bend and flex but retain their protective qualities, such as meshes, textiles that become rigid on impact, or space-age variations on good old chain mail. Adjust the Maximum Dexterity of the armour as indicated. This could be made of ultra-modern woven fibres or space-age plastic.

Hardened/Softened: This kind of body armour is made of materials of different hardness/softness, but about the same weight. Reduce or increase its Armour bonus to Defence as indicated. This could have been specially treated in a patented chemical process, or weakened by years of use and repair.

Conductive: This kind of body armour conducts electricity. It is usually made of metal, but other materials are theoretically possible.

Ferrous: This kind of body armour is made of a metal that can be affected by magnetic fields. To be ferrous literally means that the metal has some iron in it, but you can come up with whatever explanation you like.

Fragile: This kind of body armour is made of a material, such as ceramics or certain plastics, that does not bend or dent but instead shatters when it takes a blow at the wrong angle and/or of sufficient force. Every time you either (a) take a critical hit or (b) take 30 or more HPs of damage in a single blow, Fragile body armour loses 1 point of protection. If this reduces the body armour to +0, then the damage effectively destroys it. It falls off your body in shards (which is actually kind of a cool image, so you’ve got that going for you). This kind of armour could be designed to take hits so that you don’t.

Low Melting Point: This kind of body armour is usually made of plastic, but it can also be certain kinds of metal. Whenever it takes heat damage of 30 HPs or more, it loses 1 point of protection. Whenever it takes electrical damage of 50HPs or more, it loses 1 point of protection. This reduction is cumulative. If it reduces the body armour to +0 protection, then the armour has effectively melted right off of your body, and it’ll be a pain in the ass to clean up. The most common low-melting-point body armour is sports padding (e.g., hockey gear, American football pads, etc.).

Inserts (armour): These are small pieces of plastic, ceramics, or metal that you affix to your clothing. The individual pieces can be be very small and affixed to a mesh that is then sewn into clothing, or they can be larger and fit individually into special pockets. Meshes are flexible but more delicate, and large pieces are less flexible but more robust, but the game rules don’t differentiate between the two. Inserts come in Light, Medium, and Heavy. You cannot layer inserts.